Anger has been building for weeks among the whitecoats. Rarely do representatives of liberal physicians end up speaking with the same voice. Opposed the Social Security budget, which lawmakers did not approve. Gathering between trade unions this Wednesday, November 26, seven representative unions (MG France, CSMF, FML and UFML for general practitioners, Avenir Spé /Le Bloc, UFML and SML for specialists) and other organizations such as Young Doctors and Doctors for the Future signed the call to strike.
They ordered “all private doctors, regardless of specialization, all interns and medical students” to form a “general mobilization”. So for “postpone today” all appointments are scheduled starting January 5 and “maintain” even “strengthen” actions have been launched, such as a strike movement in southeastern France planned for 3 December. A “massive national demonstrations” announced on January 7 in Paris.
For labor unions, the Jamsostek budget draft is a “an attack unprecedented since the creation of Social Security in 1945” against liberal medicine. At this time, the text will lead to “eliminate conventional negotiations”. Allusion to article 24, which provides the possibility for Health Insurance to unilaterally review prices in certain sectors when there are excessive profits. In the viewfinder: radiotherapy, imaging, dialysis or nephrology. The National Federation of Radiologists has spoken out against this by calling for a strike on November 10.
Article 26 and excessive contributions to doctors’ excess fees in sector 2 (which was agreed to exceed costs) and income from sector 3 (which was not approved) also sparked anger. The surgeons’ union Le Bloc (the first among specialist doctors with Avenir Spé) had promised, at the beginning of the month, a “alienate” in Brussels in January in protest.
The socialist amendment, approved by the National Assembly and providing for the elimination of the tax deductions enjoyed by approved doctors, did not help this discontent. All this adds up to a greatly reduced increase in the planned budget for municipal medicine in 2026 – an increase of 0.9% compared to this year, while the hospital budget will increase by 2.4%.
“I’ve never seen such a big attack on the profession, and this much anger. Every day we see doctors saying: ‘I give up.’insisted the president of the ultra-liberal UFML union, Jérôme Marty, at a press conference. He announced it this morning
Among the planned actions, the union asked doctors not to carry out such actions “signed France Santé commitment contract” (labeling on medical structures capable of offering appointments in less than 48 hours), another solution to the medical desert brandished by Sébastien Lecornu upon arrival in Matignon.
To maintain the pressure, they called, starting December 3, to no longer include joint medical files (DMP) and for “systematize requests for validation of termination of employment by medical services” from Health Insurance.
